I was wondering if it is possible to controle my type 2 with diet and exercise only. I have dropped from 4 meds. to just 2. My readings are usually in nornal range and my A1C is 5.3. I am having a lot of side effects with Avandia and plan on discussing gradually moving away from the meds.with my doctor. Your advice and that of others would be appreciated.

First of all, welcome to our little family, Holly. We are really glad that you are here. Visit us often. Now, for the diet and exercise - yes. When I was first diagnosed with T2 that's what I was told, just diet and exercise. So probably as you slowly get off the meds you can probably just do diet and exercise. But then I'm certainly not a doctor or Janis. But that's what I would guess. Let's see what Janis has to say.

CLINK! CLINK! CLINK! FUN AND LAUGHTER - Sharon

__________________Sharon from Arizona
Pumping with humalog since August, 2009

BUT my husband has been controlling his Type 2 with diet and exercise only since he was diagnosed in September. He seems to be doing pretty well, and we'll know for sure on Friday when he gets his A1C test results back. As long as you keep your numbers within range your doctor will probably let you give it a try. Good luck and keep us posted

Nice to hear from you! Many people successfully control their type 2 diabetes with diet and exercise alone. Your numbers are terrific, so I don't see any reason why you can't start to cut down on your medication too. Speak with your doctor and let us know how things go. We are rooting for you!

Yes, there is no question that it is very possible; however, please remember that everyone is different. Speaking for myself, although my numbers are great, my body finds it difficult to control sugars without meds.... Even with diet and excersize.

Quote:

Originally Posted by holly_29

Hi Janis,

I was wondering if it is possible to controle my type 2 with diet and exercise only. I have dropped from 4 meds. to just 2. My readings are usually in nornal range and my A1C is 5.3. I am having a lot of side effects with Avandia and plan on discussing gradually moving away from the meds.with my doctor. Your advice and that of others would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Holly

__________________"A true act of self love, is acceptance; and that includes accepting diabetes. Changing our lifestyles is one of man's most difficult challenges; however, the boost in self-esteem that one receives from overcoming a challenge, is immeasurable."

Hey Janis, I believe that I read and heard that the magic # for diagnosing diabetes is 127, correct? Larry's dr. just called and his chol., etc is way off (I knew that and so did he), but his bs no. is 127. The office girl said it should be between 65-99. I said wait a minute - 80-110 is the range, at 65 you are in trouble. And I explained that I am diabetic. Then she asked if he is diabetic. I said no, because he has never been diagnosed diabetic. then she said that is the range for him. And just lately I've been thinking about him having diabetes from the way that he eats. Well, I think I have another diabetic on my hands. He goes to see his dr. next Tues. morning. His dr. is an internal spec. so I hope he knows diabetes. Or at least that Larry will take a pro-active part. Hopefully I can just say to him that if he wants any help he can ask me. Oh, boy, this is going to be rough. He does see what I eat. I think his dad was borderline or prediabetic and his mom says she has been border line for years. I believe the correct term now is pre-diabetes. What do you think Janis? LUM

CLINK! CLINK! CLINK! FUN AND LAUGHTER - Sharon

__________________Sharon from Arizona
Pumping with humalog since August, 2009

Janis, Larry did go in for a fasting test where his dr. was testing for chol., trig., etc., and apparently his blood sugar. So it was a fasting test at 127. With his prostrate problem he takes a pill to help him urinate easier. He won't have to but when he does have to he has to find the bathroom now. I have been thinking about the diabetes with him mostly because of being overweight. He drinks A LOT of diet or diet caffein free pepsi. And lately he has been drinking a tall glass of very pulpy orange juiice in the morning. So he does drink a lot but he always has. But with his prostrate problem, I can't go by that. Just being overweight. He has never tested with my meter, just this fasting lab test the dr. sent him for. His chol. is 277, trig. 174. I guess I will continue to try to keep my mouth shut. His attitude just seems like so what about it, I guess he will just take care of it himself. He went to my classes with me so he knows about it and what do to. But then Margaret's mother also has diabetes and doesn't listen to Margaret. And Margaret being a CDE and I gather as much info. as I can and Larry knows I could probably help him, but I'm sure he won't listen to me either. I'm only his wife and he will do things his own way. MAYBE, JUST MAYBE I can sneak in something about jump start pledges, taking 1 thing for 1 week. Like you always say, that makes it so much easier. The problem is that, like me, I have so many jump start pledges to do, it takes me a long time to get through all of them. BUT 1 thing at a time. LUM CLINK! CLINK! CLINK!

FUN AND LAUGHTER - Sharon

__________________Sharon from Arizona
Pumping with humalog since August, 2009

Hey Paula, the dr. office did call and Larry is going in next Tues. 9:30am. The nurse did give me nos., but I will try to tell Larry to ask for a copy of the results. If he will or not that is another thing. Larry did tell me tonight that this happened once before because he had eaten sweets and his nos. came back a little too high, so the dr. had him tested again and they went down. That doesn't make any sense - he ate sweets. This was a twelve hr. fast this time and last year. Whatever, Larry will go see him again and will probably have to go to the lab again. Larry is just acting very cocky about the whole thing so I can't say anything. It's like he knows he doesn't have diabetes and when he went to the chol. clinic he changed his diet and everything was under control - and he HATED it. And this dr. told him to quit the cardio dr. because he didn't really have a heart attack and I knew this would happen - high nos. on everything again. But he wants to eat what he wants and that is it. Oh, he's proud of me with having my nos. under control, but says you (Sharon) need to eat the way you want/need to and I (Larry) will eat the way I want to. I think we would both be better off HELPING each other. But, no. I look at it this way. Neither of my parents had diabetes or anyone else in the extended family except 1 aunt who was an in-law. But I got it because I am over weight. Now Larry's parents were/are both pre-diabetic, and I also tell my kids to get tested every year because they are both over weight and so is Kristy, Mark's wife. And Kristy's paternal grandma died from complications because she didn't take care of herself and was WAAAY over weight - I saw her at the Mark and Kristy's wedding. Mark always tells me that he has his eyes tested every year and they never find diabetes there. I tell him that is too late. Renee is hyPOglycemic. I think she said she is tested every year. But nobody listens to me. They are proud of what I have done for myself, but as for them - no. Thanks for letting me vent. LUM

CLINK! CLINK! CLINK! FUN AND LAUGHTER - Sharon-Peanut-EL1

__________________Sharon from Arizona
Pumping with humalog since August, 2009

Sharon, my CDE when I started this journey told me that I did not get diabetes from being overweight, that it is an inherited disease. She also said that there are lots of people out there as overweight as me, or even more, who do not have it, but that the weight didn't help. Larry may or may not have diabetes. He is overweight and has family from whom he could inherit it. But that doesn't make an open and shut case.

Another thought too, is that while a nurse practitioner (who hated "fat people") had told me a year or two before my diagnosis that if I didn't cut back on the "sweets" (I was hooked on pastas and fats, not sweets at that time), I would develop diabetes. She also said that my A1C, which I didn't understand at the time, showed that I was "clearly pre-diabetic". She explained only that it looked at your blood over the past three months, but not what my number was or anything else. Can you guess that I really didn't like her attitude?

The entire thing...her attitude toward overweight people, her warning that wasn't exactly on target or explained well, and the fact that I was technically "pre-diabetic"...just caused these horrendous rebellious feelings in me! I decided that she was saying that because of her bias, and that while my results might technically be "pre-diabetic", that it didn't mean that I WAS diabetic nor that I would become one as a certainty. She was wrong about the sweets, so I thought she was wrong about the diabetes too. I thought that it was a plan to ensnare more and more people into the medical machinery needlessly. So I rebelled and decided that I would ignore the warnings. I was fine and nothing anyone could say would have changed my mind at the time. There were none of the things going on with my that I had seen in my childhood friend who had diabetes (T1), so I was ok and NO ONE was going to tell me that I HAD to stop eating the way I wanted!

Well, when the doctor (a couple of years and a different insurance plan later) finally asked me on March 4th, 2004 something about whether the old insurance co/doctor had referred me to a CDE or dietician when I was diagnosed as a diabetic, I was shocked! I told him that I'd never been told that I was diabetic, but that I was "pre-diabetic" and to stop eating sweets that I already hadn't been eating! He quietly explained to me that "pre-diabetic" and diabetic were just different terms meaning that my body wasn't processing the sugars properly no matter whether I was eating sweets or potatoes...and that because of that I was in fact diabetic. He went through how many calories a day that I was eating (about 1200, if that) and told me to eat more (!) and told me what to eat until the dietician could see me. It was like hitting a brick wall in a speeding car.

I was devastated, but realized that this man did not say these things because of a bias, because he had none, but because he wanted to make me a healthy, functioning person that he wanted to assist in any way that he could. And it was at that moment that I finally accepted that I was diabetic. No one else in my life could have told me that and had me believe them. Maybe Larry just needs to hear it from his doctor, or maybe he just needs time to come to grips with it and accept it. Much as we love our hubbies or wives, we know that they are not always someone without an agenda...even if the agenda is a good one.

I don't mean this in a critical or unkind way, but maybe it's because you HAVE diabetes and are doing so well with controlling your foods, that he has to hear it from a neutral third party before he can accept it. Perhaps giving him some time and space to come to that conclusion will actually make it easier to work with him to eat properly because if HE comes to the conclusion that he has it and it needs to be addressed, he will want to make the changes instead of fighting them tooth and nail.

While my hubby isn't svelte like he used to be, and his mental image hasn't caught up to reality, he's much more svelte than I am. He's always said that he wants to eat healthier and lose weight, but has been totally unwilling to change to the healthier foods or control his eating in any way because he's always been able to eat what he wanted before, when he wanted it. I try, and fail to feed him better, because he doesn't internalize or accept the change within himself.

He had a rude awakening a week or so ago when he tried on a suit that I bought him in the 90's, and he didn't even come close to closing the waistband on the pants! I told him that he definitely wasn't the thin guy that I married, and had a sizeable gut on him for a while now. When he asked what I meant I explained how he'd been a 34 waist for the majority of our almost 37 years of marriage, but that over the past 15 years or so that he'd grown to his current pant size of a 40 waist. So he mulled it over for about a week and the other night he asked me to help him to eat better and lose weight. I reminded him of the past experiences, but he insists that he really MUST do something about it now. Hopefully, he's come to internalizing that the mental image doesn't match the inner and really wants to change, but I'm not going to change everything overnight. I've slipped in the 100% whole wheat white bread, and may eventually be able to convince him to try my high fiber, low fat thin wheat bread. But change him....only he can do that!

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